Denmark definitely does volume; but never mind the width, feel the quality

With a population of only 5.7 million people, the Danes still manage to slaughter 32 million pigs each year.

The Danish chef Christian Puglisi (at least I think it was him, can’t be sure now, you see a theme emerging here?) mentioned this statistic some time in the past 24 months but, again, I’ve no fucking clue as to the original source. Which is a stark reminder to me to, at the very least, put a screen shot or site link into my drafts, so that when they’ve languished there, unloved & un(re-)touched for months and months and months, I’m still able to pickup the original train of thought.

Although this particular train never even left the station it would seem…

I’d written about the Hindsholm Grisen back in 2017.

and my — to an extent — (mis-) judging of the Danish pig management processes here and recently came across more detail about how they operate, along with an apposite quote by the farmer, Poul Nielsen:

If the sight of a pig being slaughtered no longer affects you, you should not be doing it

[I’ve cribbed this detail via their site and Puglisi’s — both run through Google Translate — and any interpretation mistakes are mine alone.]

All their pigs live full-time outside but can seek shelter in ready-made arks and after at least 12 months growing, they are also killed on the same land they were born on. Poul slaughters the pigs in the field, using electric bolt-guns to stun and kill them. This offers the least amount of stress to the pigs – it’s often the rounding up and transportation to slaughter houses that’s most distressing – and the pigs left standing around them seem, apparently, completely un-fazed by the whole thing. And they’ll never have been forced to trot across concrete floors nor get fitted with nose rings, so they’ll happily root and rummage around in the ground…

The farm also chose not to use a tattoo gun to brand their pigs, because, as they say:

neither the pigs nor we like it.

That said, for obvious reasons, all the meat is stamped with the farm logo and their slaughterhouse authorisation number (5977, if you’re looking to buy) before leaving the farm.

The sows are left alone to raise a single litter of approx. 7-8 pigs a year, all of whom wean naturally once the sow’s milk dries up in a process that takes at least 16-17 weeks in a regimen which helps to prevent diarrhoea, something that in intensive farm factories is then very typically treated with penicillin.

There, instead of just targeting the sick animal, they’ll give it to all the herd as a matter of course, as the drug also acts as a growth enhancer. This has led to a (worldwide) increase in the consumption of antibiotics –- with fully ⅔rd of the antibiotics used in Denmark, going into their livestock -– amidst rapidly growing (also worldwide) concerns around the anti-microbial resistance that this practice leads to.

At Hindsholm Grisen they apparently don’t even keep any medicine such as penicillin on the farm. Their local vet is called out in cases of sickness and, if a pig has to be treated with drugs, it is marked accordingly so it can always be traced, as the carcass can’t then be sold as “organic”.

The pigs find a large part of their food, grass, roots, worms, snails and beetles in their fields but if necessary this is supplemented with 100% organic feed made up of barley, rye, oats, peas, lupine and horse beans, again from the farm itself, so that there’s always full traceability. There’s always access to roughage and, in the colder months, their diet is supplemented with seaweed.

This is how all pigs should be able to live. We’re still going to kill them, obviously, but in the meantime, their lives should be as easy, fun, stress-free and happy as possible.